Salary Surfer

The California Community Colleges launched the new Salary Surfer website in June 2013. This groundbreaking online tool allows current and prospective students to view combined median earnings of those who completed a certificate or degree in 179 of the most widely enrolled programs at community colleges. Here are some interesting facts from the new website:

- Associate degrees with the highest median incomes five years after graduation are:

Electrical and Power Systems Transmission ($96,200)

Physician Assistant ($95,700)

Radiation Therapy Technician ($91,300)

- The statewide median income for graduates five years after earning an associate degree in a vocational discipline is $61,600. In contrast, the median income for those in the state whose highest level of education is a high school diploma is about $24,400.

- Nearly 45 percent of California students who graduated with an associate degree earned more than $54,000 annually five years later. That is the median wage of someone with a bachelor’s degree living in California.

- About 25 percent of associate degree holders had median wages of more than $77,000 five years after graduating.

It is important to point out that Salary Surfer will not contain income information for those community college students that transfer to a four-year college university. You can check out the Salary Surfer site at:www.salarysurfer.cccco.edu.